avanti printing
16, 2010
Home printing technology has improved considerably since the days of dot matrix. Today you can buy a consumer brand inkjet printer for a reasonable price and perform your own home-based desktop printing. For a considerably greater investment, a laser printer can improve your home printing even more. However, whether it's an inkjet or laser printer, they still have limitations that you simply cannot get without professional offset printing.
The Offset Difference
Offset printing is a printing technique that uses printing plates, rollers, and a three-color dye process to get the most colorful, vibrant, and professional-looking printing job possible. In fact, offset printing is the most-used printing process today, with over 40% of all printing jobs performed by offset printing. Anytime you pick up a magazine, newspaper, or see a poster for your favorite band, you are seeing offset printing done at its best.
What can offset printing offer that you cannot get with a regular consumer inkjet printer? Here is a short list:
Higher Quality Images
Graphics and image printed with offset printing are more vibrant and higher quality. An offset printing job produces sharper images, and the color process offers more richer colors than you can get in an inkjet cartridge.
Full Bleeds
"Bleeding" is the process of printing images or text to the very edge of the paper. Only offset printing can get your business card, post card, catalogue, or poster with full color on every square inch of the paper.
More Paper Options
Consumer inkjet printers can handle regular sized papers of typical thickness, but only offset printing can get your printing job done on extra glossy paper and larger sizes. When was the last time you could print a full 24x36 inch poster in an inkjet? Offset printing can get the job done on virtually any size paper you need, even custom sizes.
Longer-Lasting
Inkjet printing can look good - for a while. Unfortunately, inkjet inks will fade over time, especially when exposed to direct sunlight. Offset printing will last much longer.
Cheaper Over the Long Run
Ultimately, the inks used in inkjet printing are much more expensive over the long run. Consider a full-color printing using an inkjet cartridge that costs $70. You may only get 70 to 100 prints from the cartridge, costing you up to $1.00 per printed page. With offset printing, your costs are reduced considerably to only cents per page.
For your professional printing needs, choose a printer wisely. Offset printing is the hands-down best choice for getting your printing job done efficiently and cheaply.